


Cruentus

by LynsFantasy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Hanahaki Disease, I said I wouldn't write Klangst but here I am, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, canonverse, diverges after season 3, hanahaki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 00:47:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14801156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynsFantasy/pseuds/LynsFantasy
Summary: Cruentus (Latin, adjective)1. blood red2. bloody/bleeding/discharging bloodLance coughs, and he sees red in more ways than one.The petals are red, the blood is red, his anger is red...And Keith is red.





	Cruentus

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aleois](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aleois/gifts).



> Happy birthday to my fellow angstlord Blu (aka Aleois). I know Klance and Langst and Hanahaki are your favorites...  
> Timeline diverges after season 3, probably? It could be read as being after season 4, but it's definitely not compliant with season 5.  
> Warnings in notes at the end.

Lance knew he was in trouble the first day he coughed into his hand and saw red in more ways than one.

Everyone knew there were only a few ways to overcome hanahaki:

  1. Have your love return your affections. Yeah, like that was going to happen. Keith Kogane, best pilot of the class? No way. Besides, Keith never showed interest in anyone. He was probably asexual and aromantic.
  2. Have the flower removed. This fix would definitely work, but it would also prevent Lance from ever loving anyone romantically ever again, and come on, he didn't want to give up on romance so soon!
  3. Renounce your love. If Lance could successfully stop loving Keith altogether, the flowers would fade and die. This was probably Lance's best bet. The best way to stop loving someone is to start hating them, right? Well, Lance would hate Keith harder than anyone had ever hated anyone else in the history of the entire universe! So there!!



However, it... didn't really work, for the most part. The hanahaki stopped progressing, but it didn't go away. Lance still coughed up a few petals whenever he glared at Keith too long or thought about him late at night. But whatever. As long as the case wasn't getting worse, Lance would count that as a victory.

And then, of course, Keith left the Garrison. Lance stopped coughing up petals. It was all good, right?

Fast forward about a year, and now Lance had to work with Keith as Paladins of Voltron. He was happily surprised to find that the hanahaki didn't resurface. Victory point for Lance. Now he had to just keep hating Keith for the rest of eternity or at least until he could fall in love with someone else, right? And hey, Allura was pretty great. Lance could totally fall in love with her, right?

When Lance started coughing up petals again a little while after Shiro disappeared, however, they were the same familiar red petals. The ones for Keith.

Alright. So maybe hating Keith wouldn't work. Lance briefly tried asking Coran about the possibility of removing the flower, but Coran had never even heard of hanahaki. It seemed like Lance only had one choice left. Maybe... maybe Lance needed to get Keith to love him.

One problem: that required Lance to not only overcome his rivalry with Keith and build up a rapport with him, but it also required him to confess to Keith.

And okay, sure, Lance could swallow his pride and confess.

However.

This plan also relied on Keith understanding what Lance was getting at.

At first, Lance tried hinting. That didn't work at all.

Then he tried telling Keith that he liked him. Keith completely misunderstood.

Finally, Lance decided to go all out. He wrote a confession love letter. He asked Hunk to make the pastries he'd figured out how to make that tasted kind of like oatmeal raisin cookies – because yes, Keith was the kind of weirdo who preferred oatmeal raisin over chocolate chip. He picked a small bouquet of wildflowers from the planet they were currently parked on. Everything was good.

Now, Lance was just waiting for Keith to get back from the Blade of Marmora mission he was on.

Just... waiting...

Hunk packed up the cookies so that they wouldn't go stale.

Waiting.

The flowers started to wilt. Lance put them in a vase.

Waiting.

Lance fell asleep in the lounge. He woke up in the middle of the night to see that someone had draped a blanket over him. Keith still wasn't back. Lance was getting worried.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Wai--

A transmission came in. Kolivan's first words were, " _I'm sorry_."

The universe froze, suspended in time while Lance failed to process those words.

_Waiting._

Lance turned around and doubled over coughing. He fell to his knees, coughing up red, red. The floor was covered in petals. His jeans were soaked in blood. His lungs burned and his heart broke and he was dying, dying, he felt like he was dying, and it was probably _true_.

They rushed him to a pod.

When Lance awoke, he felt more awful than before. His chest ached. His lungs burned with every breath. Tears fell down Allura's cheeks as she explained that the pod had accelerated the flowers' growth -- it was designed to help living things thrive, after all. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so, so sorry."

Lance forgave her and the others. They didn't know that the pod would do that, after all. He only had hours left, but... well, there was nothing he could do about that. He tried to enjoy his final hours, even as he coughed up truly alarming amounts of blood and petals.

And then... nothing.

Then Lance opened his eyes. At first, he couldn’t even comprehend what he was seeing. It was white and gold and silver and precious gems. It was pure and light and happy. It was beautiful.

He saw long-dead relatives. He saw an old neighbor he hadn't even known was dead. He even saw famous people.

But... where was Keith?

He asked an angel. They smiled at him sadly. "Different races have different afterlives," they explained. "Keith was offered a choice. He asked to go where Galra go when they die. He hoped he would find his mother there."

Lance asked if there was any way for him to ever see Keith again, and the angel shook their head.

Lance could enjoy eternal bliss... but not with the one he loved.

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for blood, death, and afterlife
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this! Comments are welcome.


End file.
